1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally directed toward a tool and method for forcefully opening a sealed compartment, more specifically, this invention relates to tools for opening telephone cable splice boxes or cases.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A telephone cable splice box is comprised of four major parts. A top, a bottom, and two ends. The four parts are interfitted together using seals. The current design of telephone cable splice boxes provide for opening the box by breaking its seals by the following means:
a. Inserting bolts into threaded holes in the flange of the top half of the box; PA1 b. Driving the bolts downward against metal plates located on the flange of the bottom half of the box; and, PA1 c. As the top half travels up the bolts, the halves separate.
The problem to which the invention is directed to is that the current means for opening telephone splice boxes allows the bottom half to separate from the ends. Since the box is suspended off of the ground by the cables running through the ends, the mass of wires inside of the box drop down with the bottom half which makes working on the wires more difficult. This also causes reassembly of the box to take much longer because the worker must reconnect any wires which came disconnected when the wires dropped out of the box, and the worker must repack the wires into the box. What is needed is a tool which allows the splice box to be opened without resulting in the separation of the bottom half of the box from the ends of the box.